ABSTRACT
The period now to be considered shows, on the one hand, the establishment of an academic philosophy, the fruit of seeds of thought of the early Taishō period. On the other hand, the years beginning with the Shōwa era (1926) up to the end of the war are the least academic in Japanese thought, because of the involvement of thinkers in the problems through which Japan was passing at that time. The Taishō democracy, as it is usually called, which lasted roughly from the first World War till 1926, was a liberal period for Japan, when democratic ideas were freely propagated and discussed. It was also the time when cultural criticism and cultural philosophy fully matured. Especially during the 1920's the so-called Bunkashugi a or "Culturalism" became prominent.
